


Scars of Then and Now

by liquidfear15



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Drug Use, Explicit Language, F/M, Fallout 4 Spoilers, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Ghouls, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Jealousy, Recreational Drug Use, Romance, Self-Esteem Issues, Serious Injuries, Seriously though really really slow, Slow Burn, Spoilers, this is going to take me forever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 07:06:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5447621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquidfear15/pseuds/liquidfear15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Valkyrie Ramsey has her fair share of scars, that's what comes of being one of the few close combat specialists in the US military at a time when ballistic and laser weaponry were far more common. Now that she has woken up after a frigid sleep to find her husband and baby ripped from her she is sure she will acquire more in her mission to make the bastards who ripped them from her wish they had killed her too. She's proud of her scars, a badge of honour for protecting those who can not protect themselves. Not everybody feels that way about their scars. She hopes she can change their minds, see themselves for what they are. Fighters, warriors, survivors, friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thawed Out

**Author's Note:**

> Oh gosh oh gosh. I have never done any creative writing in my LIFE and I am scared as hell of this project that I seem to have given myself but regardless of whether people like it or not I can make you one promise. Please excuse it for not being as good as some of you lovely authors out there but I am trying my hardest!

Val gulps down frigid air. The door to her “decontamination pod” hissed open. She spluttered and staggered forward towards the pod that contained her husband. Nate was slumped over, unmoving.

“Come on COME ON! There must be a switch around here for this thing!”

Val scrabbled around with the console attached to Nate’s pod until she flipped a red lever and heard his pod make the same hiss.

“No no no no. This isn’t happening.”

Her husband’s frozen lifeless body lay before her, hands still balled up ready to protect his baby. Shaun. Where is he? Who were those people? Why did they want her baby? She caressed her husband’s face and slipped his wedding ring from his hand.

“I’ll find who did this and I’ll get Shaun back. I promise”

Val had no idea how she was going to do what she just promised her husband but there was nothing that was going to stop her. Nothing. She took the ring she gave Nate on their wedding day and slipped it onto the silver chain she kept around her neck. With that she set out into the vault that was supposed to be her family’s safe haven if the bombs dropped.

“Prepared for the future” she spat bitterly as she combed through the vault as she would a battle field. Val was a soldier in the US military before all this happened she had seen her share of horrors but being here, seeing her neighbours dead and frozen in these pods. These are people she knew, people she had coffee with, laughed with, ran a book club for. She felt her stomach lurch and quickly suppressed it, this was no time for vomiting, everybody in this vault seemed to be dead and she needed to get out right now.

She stumbled forward through the vault, still unsteady on her feet. How long had she been frozen? No time to think about that right now, there are more important questions like where is the exit?

There was a terminal in what seemed to be the security office. Val skimmed through the entries. Vault Tech had intentionally misled them and frozen all the people who signed up? What kind of sick people came up with this? There were also some personal entries from what a security officer. It looks like the security staff also hadn’t been told what the intention of this vault was. The security staff got more and more riled up by the situation they were placed in, underground, close quarters, limited food. It seemed that they eventually staged a mutiny against the vault overseer and the scientific staff. “Good” Val spat out all those sick bastards deserve a shot between the eyes for what they did to us.

She quickly moved on through the vault grabbing a baton on her way out of the security office. Val had excelled in her military training in the use of all weapons and hand to hand combat but she was particularly efficient at using long range rifles and melee combat weapons which gave her a massive advantage, kill them when they are far away but if they get too close whip out a knife and stab them before they get you. This worked in theory however the stab them before they get you was always the hard part. Val’s face bore many scars from her forays into close quarters combat, huge gashes across her face, a gouge wound on the right side of her nose and her infamous forced smile.

_Her opponent had gotten in the surprise attack and injected her with a paralytic before she knew what was going on. He pinned her to the ground and then straddled her waist, knife in hand. He placed the blade inside her mouth and started cutting sideways, the pain was substantial but it was nowhere near as bad as the amount of blood that poured into her mouth, threatening to choke her. She was a soldier she was NOT going to die by drowning in her own blood!_

_The man was done with carving her face and sat up to admire his work, then his head exploded in a deafening clap. Bits of skull and brain matter went flying towards her but she could do nothing about it. The blood was still pouring in and she was sure she would die when someone swam into her vision and quickly moved her into the recovery position allowing the blood to flow out of her mouth onto the cold floor._

_“I’m sorry I didn’t make it here faster ma’am, I am going to have to stitch up those wounds. I am afraid this is going to hurt but it will stop the bleeding.”_

_She lay there unable to scream or flinch as this mystery person stuck a needle through her cheeks repeatedly fastening them back together. The person flipped her over onto her other side to stitch up her other cheek and she caught a glimpse of orange hair long on the top, short back and sides. A man then. The military regulations only allowed one uniform hairstyle for everybody, the women were permitted to have theirs longer but it was still shaved back and sides. That hair though, not red like hers, bright orange. “Well he sure isn’t part of a stealth unit” she thought to herself “no way you can sneak around with hair glowing like a beacon”_

_From her new position she could see the door and his weapon a combat shotgun just laying on the floor. She wanted to scream at him, yell to pick up his damn weapon and reposition himself so he could see the door but the paralytic hadn’t worn off yet. She kept trying and trying the whole time he was stitching. Eventually after he had finished his incessant poking at her face and had cleaned her wound she felt her jaw twitch. She kept going trying to move her non responsive body. “Gun, Door” She finally managed to get out. He jumped at the sound of her voice, obviously not expecting her to be moving so soon._

_“Could you repeat that again ma’am? I didn’t quite catch that?” the man cautiously replied._

_“Gun, Door” each word was a struggle each movement like pulling teeth from a rock but she needed her savior to pick up his damn weapon and watch the door! Such a rookie mistake to make. Who the hell sent this greenhorn into an active combat zone?!_

_“I’m sorry ma’am I don’t understand what you mean?” The guy looked utterly confused but now was not the time for her to take pity on him, right now he was putting them both in danger by remaining unarmed and not watching the fucking door!_

_“Get gun, watch door” She hoped this was enough to clarify and sure enough the man jumped up quicker than she had expected he could and grabbed his shotgun and pointed it towards the thankfully empty doorway. Finally able to relax she let her eyes fall shut and sleep quickly overcame her._

_She awoke and stretched her limbs, the paralytic had worn off in her sleep, excellent. The man was still standing guard watching the door. How long had she been out? Had he been there in that same position the whole time? “Soldier?” She called out “What is your name” He jumped startled at the sudden voice when all around him had been utter silence._

_“It’s Nate ma’am, Nate Ramsey”_

_“And what are you doing here?”_

_“Oh I was just making a sweep of the building ma’am looking for supplies and well...I saw that guy”, he points in the direction of her now headless assailant, “on top of you with a knife and I recognised your uniform as one of ours so I uh...just blew his head off” He looked sheepish, like he had been summoned to the head teacher's office, like she was scrutinising his actions. Well she was but not that particular one._

_“Okay soldier but don’t ever let me catch you discarding your weapon and putting your back to the door again do you hear?” Dear lord she sounded like her commanding officer, the man was an absolute tool but his words had kept her alive throughout her time serving under him._

_“Yes ma’am, I am sorry about that ma’am I was just so focused on getting you patched up”_

_“I appreciate that soldier but your first thought must always be on your weapon and your line of sight to the entrances to the room, if somebody else had come in through that door your actions would have put yourself at risk as well” He had lost the sheepish look, he was now paying full attention soaking in all her words as if he was committing them to memory for use at a later date. She hoped he was. It might save his life one day._

_“Noted ma’am, now are you ready to move? We should get you out of here and to a medical centre so they can take a proper look at those wounds. I did the best I could myself but my stitch work is not pretty, it’s probably going to leave a nasty scar.” He was matter of fact and professional about it, like that school boy from earlier had totally disappeared._

_“You have seen my face soldier.” She scoffed at him “Do you think I mind a few more scars?”_

_He surveyed her slashed, gouged and ripped face. She was beautiful, not like a housewife, domestic and dolled up, in a way that would could probably rip out your throat. Beautiful like a Lioness, like a Hyena. “No ma’am and I wouldn’t dare say otherwise but we should get you to a medical centre anyway. At the very least they will be able to give you some Med-x for the pain”_

_She laughed, it pulled at her stitches and sent flashes of pain right across her face but she laughed. “Good answer soldier. I like you, Nate was it?” He nods “I like you Nate, at least you are honest. Now can you come over here and help me up I dunno if that drug has worn off yet and I don’t want to try and stand just to fall flat on this pretty face. Also my name is Valkyrie not ma’am.” She flashed him the best smile she could given the circumstance. He quickly came over and put one arm under her armpit and pulled her off the floor. They walked out of the building like that, his shotgun in one hand Val in the other and her with her rifle slung over her back and knife in hand._


	2. The Gears Keep Turning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Val squishes more bugs, gets that door open and breaks out into the brave new world.

Making her way through the winding corridors of the vault coming to a room with a window into what she could only assume was the vault’s reactor. Sparks were arcing between the two sides of the generator and the whole thing looked supremely unstable. Ahead of her was a room with a kitchen and table set up, “Living quarters” she muttered might be something useful in there she mused, a gun, ammunition, something to eat. God she was hungry, how long had it been since she last ate? No time for that now, she took a few steps towards the living quarters but was stopped dead in her tracks by something coming round the corner to meet her. The thing lunged at her, Val made a backhanded sweep with her security baton and knocked the thing out of the air, killing it in a single blow.

Able to survey her foe now that it was deceased she couldn't quite believe it. The thing that had attacked her was an absolutely massive cockroach. It was exactly as she remembered a roach to be only thousands of times larger, as if somebody had inflated it. She surveyed the rest of the room for hostiles, finding it empty and devoid of any useful items she moved out of the room and towards the generator room. Lighting zapped a giant roach that was scuttling it’s way towards her between the generators. If the bugs were this size what was everything else like? Cows the size of houses? Fleas as big as your fist? Her whole body shuddered at the thought. The only way to find out though was to get outside so she pushed onwards.

More roaches, bones of dead security officers, pools of water from the pipes leaking above her head. Finally she came to a door labelled “Overseer’s Office” well this had to be the place. The metal door swished open to reveal a fairly spacious room with a desk and a terminal in the centre. A flash of metal drew her attention to the desk and she rushed forward to grab the 10mm pistol that was lying there. Still in decent condition and a good supply of bullets, maybe her luck was finally turning around. She mused to herself bitterly that there probably wasn't many things that were unluckier than waking up in an underground hole, from an unexpected cryo-sleep to find your husband and child torn from you along with every other person from your community.

The room was mostly empty, a locked door to her left and some living quarters to the right. There was however a cage in the corner with some kind of modified rifle in it. The case was locked though with some kind of super security lock which seemed sensible to her, it looked like a highly modified rifle of some kind and whoever had done the modifications had put a lot of time into their work. Vowing to come back for it later she stepped over the clothed skeleton of who she could only assume was the Overseer himself and sat down at his terminal.

After a bit of simple password breaking she had access to the terminal. The gun in the cage, Val found out, was called the Cryolator and was akin to a reverse flame-thrower spewing out a cryogenic spray to freeze people rather than set them alight. A useful idea but not what she was concerned with a the moment. Right down on the bottom of the screen was what she was after, the door lock release. Quickly authorising the release and rising from the terminal she stalked toward the now open door, 10mm in hand. Rounding the corner Val let out a quiet huff of disgust. There were more of those giant roaches all over the tunnel. Pop, pop, pop the small pistol fired and met it’s target every time. The path ahead now littered with giant insect corpses Val can move forward avoiding standing in any insect guts. 

Through another door, two more shots, two more roaches down. She is finally back to somewhere she recognises. This is the entrance room with the elevator however there was one more small problem, the giant gear shaped door between her and freedom. The controll pannel near the door was fairly simple, a couple of knobs a port for one of those fancy Robco. Pip-Boys and a big red button behind a locked plastic casing. Val moved the knobs and tried all combinations to make the cage around the gear shaped elevator move but to no avail, she had to get access to that button somehow. 

Val looked over her shoulder to the skeleton covered in a labcoat, right there around its arm was a Pip-Boy. She quickly grabbed it, trying as hard as possible not to disturb the remains of the dead, and placed it around her own wrist. The Pip-Boy lit up the instant she fastened it on, bright green light casting a sickly glow over the surroundings, as if it had been waiting for somebody. A little caricatured man popped up with heart rate, blood pressure and radiation levels. Val gasped could see why these were expensive, to get this much tech into such a small computer was a marvel. No time for that though, there were a couple of switches on the Pip-Boy but what got her attention was the white plug on the back. 

Stepping back towards the vault elevator console she put the white plug from the Pip-Boy into the socket on the console. The plastic shield over the red button popped open and she smacked the button with her fist. The vault door slowly rolling away to reveal the elevator to the surface, she unplugged her Pip-Boy from the console and made her way across the creaky footbridge. Stepping into the elevator and slamming the gate shut behind her Val allowed herself to breathe, the ride up was going to take a while which gave her time to assess her situation and plan the best course of action. She had her combat knife and her sniper rifle still stored at home so she could go grab them. She had already been attacked inside the vault so she didn't imagine outside was going to be better. Then she could use her new Pip-Boy to locate the nearest military base and report in. Inform them of what had occurred and request any available intelligence on the man she had seen shoot her husband. Suddenly it was bright, blindingly bright. As soon as her eyes had adjusted to the light Val knew that she would have to come up with some new plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time we meet Codsworth and Preston (I hope, I need to stop rambling and get to the exciting parts faster)

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAAAH! I hope you liked it! I intend to do a chapter every week? I might get one out more frequently than that but I am giving myself some leeway here. Thanks so much for giving my silly story your time!


End file.
